Leviticus 8:10–12

This opening scene gives very striking testimony to Christ, in two facts. So far we have no shedding or sprinkling of blood — unlike the cleansing of the leper (Lev. 14), where sinfulness is the subject. And the anointing oil is used freely in verses 10-12... The tabernacle and all that was in it are anointed with the oil that speaks of the Holy One. Moses sprinkled the altar seven times to anoint it and all its utensils, with the laver and its base. Then, confirming this exceptional aim, he poured the anointing oil on Aaron's head. This was not the purifying action of the Holy Spirit, but His energy. It bore witness to Christ's title to have and fill all with the power of God.

The holy anointing oil was first put on the tabernacle, and all that was in it, to sanctify them. Only after that was it poured on Aaron's head. The tabernacle was God's dwelling place. It stood for the whole universe, which will come under the fragrance of the Spirit of Christ. That is what this holy ointment signifies. This is what God had in mind, in His counsels of love — to have a whole universe filled with the sweet odour of what Christ is to Him.

The tabernacle is the house of God. It is the scene where He shows Himself, and the place of priestly service and worship. Everything in it was anointed with the holy oil, and that teaches us this. Everything connected with the house of God must be ordered in the power of the Holy Spirit — how it is run, its service, and all the priestly work carried on in it (see 1 Peter 2:5). Ordered that way, it will express the sweet fragrance of Christ to God... Suppose everything connected with the house of God were arranged by His own word, and yet the holy anointing oil — the power of the Holy Spirit — were missing. It could not be acceptable to Him.

Exodus 30:25 calls the oil "a holy anointing oil." Exodus 30:32 says of it, "It is holy, and it shall be holy to you." Anointed with it, the tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, the table and its vessels, the lampstand and its vessels, the altars of incense and of burnt offering with their vessels, the laver and its base — all are sanctified, "that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy."

God's purpose is to "put all things under His feet," and to set Him at the head of all glory, both above and below... Christ's headship of creation will be shared with the Church. Even so, it stands above and apart from any such relationship. His headship flows from the mighty fact that "by Him all things were created" (Col. 1:16). Aaron, as a picture of Him, was anointed, and the tabernacle and its vessels with him, before his sons received the sacred oil (Lev. 8:10-12).

The whole assembly was allowed to see the high priest clothed in his official robes, wearing the turban and anointed. And there was more. As each garment was put on, as each act was performed, as each ceremony was carried out, everyone could see that it rested on the authority of the word. There was nothing vague, nothing arbitrary, nothing imaginative. God had settled it all.

The testimony to Christ in this opening scene is very striking, in two ways. First, so far we have had no shedding or sprinkling of blood. We do see blood where the type of sinfulness comes before us in the cleansing of the leper (Leviticus 14). Second, the anointing oil is used freely in verses 10-12. But the absence of blood in the verses before us is the witness to Christ's excellency. The tabernacle and all that was in it are anointed with the oil that speaks of the Holy One. It was not the purifying action of the Holy Spirit. It was His energy, bearing witness to Christ's title to have all things and to fill them with the power of God.

No blood has been sprinkled or shed yet. Atonement is therefore not the basis of the anointing, and none is needed as yet. This bears witness to Christ in His own personal, perfect acceptability to God.

Finally the consecration ceremony was to be repeated, and the altar cleansed, daily for seven days, showing the perfection (seven) that must always mark whatever God has to do with.

Before the holy anointing oil was poured on Aaron's head, it was first put on the tabernacle and everything in it, to sanctify them. The altar of burnt offering was where the sacrifices were offered to God. The basin and its stand were where the priests washed their hands and feet before entering the tabernacle to serve the Lord. These were anointed too, for everything relating to the service of God in His universe must be fragrant with the sweet fragrance of Christ to God.

Everything connected with the house of God must be ordered in the power of the Holy Spirit — its regulation, its service, and all the priestly work carried on in it (see 1 Peter 2:5). When it is ordered that way, it will express the sweet fragrance of Christ to God… If everything connected with the house of God were arranged even according to His own word, and yet the holy anointing oil — the power of the Holy Spirit — were lacking, it could not be acceptable to Him. Notice the effect too: everything is sanctified… Whatever His power rests on is set apart for God, and everything that comes under His action, even by contact, is also claimed as holy.

Here we have, I think, a bright insight into the way the universe is filled with glory. When Aaron alone is anointed without blood, the tabernacle is anointed too. In Christ there is a fullness of divine power, spiritual grace and glory. That fullness fills the whole created scene that witnesses to the glory of God.

The anointing of the tabernacle in connection with Aaron has been taken as showing Christ's personal claim to the universe. But for that, the order would have to be reversed. And the reason for anointing the altar and the basin does not appear. These last are certainly connected with the work of human recovery. The tabernacle itself was a pattern of heavenly things, but it was in fact the dwelling place of God among the people. May this anointing not rather show something else? The tabernacle expresses His delights with the sons of men, even though man is fallen, as altar and basin show. Those delights find their justification in this wonderful Person who has become Man, and on whom for the first time the Spirit of God can rest.

But notice that, as God had directed, Moses poured the anointing oil on Aaron's head; he did not simply sprinkle it (verse 12). Here Aaron stands as a picture of our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. He needed no blood put on Him. The Spirit anointed Him in a perfection that was His alone.

This opening scene gives a striking testimony to Christ in two ways. First, so far no blood has been shed or sprinkled — unlike the leper's cleansing in Leviticus 14, which pictures sinfulness. Second, Moses uses the anointing oil freely in verses 10-12. When Aaron's sons come near, which happens next, the sin offering comes near too... But its absence in the verses before us is the witness to Christ's excellence... This was not the Holy Spirit's cleansing work. It was His power, testifying to Christ's right to possess all things and to fill all with the power of God.

When Aaron is alone — apart from his sons — Moses anoints him without blood. Later, when he stands with his sons, the sprinkling of the blood comes before the anointing oil (verses 13-30). The reason for the difference is clear. Aaron together with his sons pictures the Church as the priestly family. Aaron alone is a picture of Christ. So Moses anoints him without the blood, to show that the One he pointed to was "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners." He did not need the blood, because He had no spot or blemish, and He was holy before God.

So Aaron alone received the blood only after his earlier anointing with oil (v. 12). In the same way, the Spirit anointed Christ when John baptized Him. The blood came later, when He shed it at Calvary. After this, Aaron's sons received the blood before the oil, just as the blood of Christ cleansed believers first, and then they received the Spirit of God at Pentecost (Acts 2).

This set him apart from his sons in a special way. In their case the anointing oil, with blood from the altar, is sprinkled on them. Psalm 133 notes this pouring of the oil on Aaron's head, from where it ran down to his garments. When the Spirit of God came down as a dove on Jesus, no one else was anointed. When He went up on high, He received the Spirit as Head, to give to us. He holds this place of Head, and everything flows from Him.

This ointment began at his head and spread to the far edges of his robes, right down to the fringe. Unity is like that. It all begins from the Head. And notice: it begins from the priestly Head, not the royal head. This was not the ointment poured on David... Everything begins with Christ at the right hand of God, though it comes all the way down to the furthest edge of His garments here on earth.